Lt. Dan

Not much progress. Been waiting for one of my industrial sparky friends to come wire it up but it's the maintenance shut season for the power stations around here so they are all busy. Started cleaning all the schmoo off. Did a few hours, maybe got a 1/3 done. You can see how the before/after nastiness on the side I haven't cleaned yet. Not going crazy on every nook and cranny, just trying to get the bulk of it off, it's a machine tool after all. My partner came in asking me to make a replacement clip for the brake line on the fork on her bike, it was maybe $35 shipped which she thought was too much so she didn't want to pay for it. I told her it would take me hours to make once the machine got going so it probably was a better idea to just buy it. She still didn't want to buy it and asked if she could help in exchange, so I put her to work water blasting the chip tray in the pouring rain...fair trade. Took the back y axis way cover off and scraped the old dry grease/machine poos out from around the linear rails. Will get the other side and the X axis when it's powered up and I can jog it around to make room.

Yeah they are an interesting machine these twin table vertical's. Since you are working from the side window for setups they are a bit ergonomically inconvenient for job shopping/prototyping, but at the same time you don't get the advantages that a twin pallet horizontal does (a tombstone with lots more surface for parts and good chip clearance). The 15k rpm spindle only goes down to 150rpm, and looses a bit of torque down low, so you have to focus your machining strategy towards high speed/constant engagement tool paths. I think that's why this machine didn't have a lot of interest and went for what I thought was a good price and because of that I'm willing to put up with the inconvenience and extra floor space vs a standard BT30 machine. For reference it went for a more than a new Shapeoko and much less than a starter package Tormach 440, so if you have the power and space buying a used industrial machine will get you a bunch more than a hobby grade machine. You may have to put up with Fanuc... but once you get over that you're golden. In terms of my plans, I'm an engineering consultant and I felt that it might be nice to have a bit of capacity to do odd jobs for clients (so no need to keep the spindle busy). I have a bit of background in machining from years ago, so its something I'd like to be able to do again because I really enjoyed it. Sometimes I have errant dreams of completely transitioning out of being a consultant to making parts (I probably incorrectly feel that will be lower stress), so this is kind of a way to test out the market/feasibility/enjoy-ability of that as a revenue stream.

Oh crap. I feel like I should change my name now since the other Dan has probably been around longer. Is that possible? Also ideas for another name? The driver was great. He was actually already turned around in the 3rd picture. He went down the driveway next to the shed to the farm behind me, then hooked it backed around infront of my section towards the other houses.

Well its been awhile since I've posted on old school. Since my last thread with the Chevy camper van build up we've moved back into NZ, bought a mini lifestyle block in Taupo and put a house and shop on it, we've also spent way too much time working. I've gotten quite good at Barry tasks like lawn mowing and fixing fences, so no car projects as boring things have taken over my life now. We've also gotten a dog! Anyways this one is another (off) white Chevy, a 2005, which is a bit too new and full of computer fandangles to be considered Old School but I figured you guys might appreciate it anyways. So long story short, I was watching a listing on TradeMe but not really seriously thinking about buying a project, and it ended on the 30th of December, which is really a stupid time to end an auction. I got a fixed price offer that morning while I was driving up to see Mr. Jackson in Waiuku for New Years shenanigans (I don't know your internet name, damn I'm a shite friend). When I arrived him and @Testament gave me a quick pep talk/beer and we left for Auckland to go have a look at it. It was good for what it was and I was able to work out a deal for even less than the fixed price because the owners wanted it gone. Anyways it arrived yesterday, since it took a bit of time to organize transport. She's big, weighing 3.7 tons and it just fits in the shed doors. A used but running 2005 Chevalier FTC-1320V! So for those who aren't familiar with this model, its a twin table vertical machining center, 15,000RPM, 3.7kW with a 16 tool ATC. This might be a bit of a slow thread as I collect parts, get the air system in the shop running so its on you guys to keep me motivated. PS I just epoxied the floors, my shop isn't usually this clean...everything is pushed down the other end, and then I'll put it all back and paint the last bay this weekend. The stuff from Regis Coatings in Christchurch turned out really good (Epotread 1000). We'll see how it holds up long term. Also if there is interest I could do a shop spam thread.

For once the rules make sense.

If I'm understanding this correctly... The 5in pipe through the fender is for the full race tune and awesome... And the rest of the exhaust was to make it street legal, but then NASCAR boom tube to get it low because low is cool, except now it won't be quiet enough to pass cert so driving it on the road isn't happening....

Vanessa is for sale.... Id love another oldschooler to go on vacation to north america and have her!!!! http://forum.expeditionportal.com/threads/176494-2007-Chevy-Express-AWD-Camper-Van

I promised to post a review ages ago, wrote half of it and finally finished it. Here it is: 1. Dometic CFX-DZUS. The first fridge I received from Amazon had a defective screen but cooled fine, after some messing around with Amazon it was replaced. The new fridge has been running constantly since March now, no issues. We really love having a fridge and freezer, it has allowed us to keep a really normal diet. We keep frozen meat and ice cream, popsicles, freeze leftovers etc. It's great. The cooler style layout is a bit annoying to find stuff in versus a normal fridge at first, but stuff seems to stay in place really well on rough roads. The fridge side has two compartments, the shorter one above the compressor is good for veggies (stays a bit warmer) and the deeper one is great for milk, cans, jars and is a bit colder at the bottom. The fan is nice and quiet, no louder than a computer fan, and it doesn't seem to pump much heat into the van. Comes on maybe twice an hour for a few minutes. The slide that we bought with it is good quality, my only gripe is that it is shared with the 95 liter model so it sticks out about two inches further than it needs all around. It a cheaper than the Engel and ARB slides though, and about what I could have built it for after buying full extension slides and latches, and could work with other fridges as it has space for straps in addition to the holes for bolting the fridge directly to it. The insulated cover seems good, no no issues and I feel like it helps with the efficiency. It's getting a bit of wear from sliding in and out a bunch but it's not really an issue. 2. Camp chef oven- I was a bit worried about the durability of the oven when I got it but it has held up fine. The oven combined with the fridge really has helped us eat well. We go out to eat maybe one a week or two, so the cooking great has probably saved us it's price in food. We have made pork roasts, brownies, muffins, etc with it. There were two things i picked up from the Amazon reviews: buy a separate thermometer (I got a $7 stainless one by Rubbermaid) and buy the pizza stone for the oven. The pizza stone is important because there is only one burner in the oven so if you leave it on the bottom all the time it helps to distribute the heat. Otherwise it gets a hot spot in the middle. The oven is a bit underpowered (3000btu), tops out at about 180c/375f. Some things take longer to cook but that's usually ok. The two burners on top are great, good heat control and nice and wide flames. It's a bit big for a weekender camping rig but for us doing this full time I'm all about it. I also have an MSR pocket rocket canister stove with me that we use to make coffee in the morning when we're too lazy to get the big oven out. Get the adapter hose and a big bottle. The 11lb bottle of propane lasts about six weeks and costs $10 to refill. Much cheaper than camping canisters. 3. Eccotemp L5 propane water heater- I've used this a few times and it's ok. There is a finicky pressure valve inside it that needs adjustment or else it turns off after 10s. We've used this about ten to fifteen times in five months but mostly because we’ve found places to swim or shower. 4. Water system - 100l of water is great. We fill up at paid campgrounds or RV sani-dumps weekly when we check in to town to do laundry and other stuff. I haven't even come close to draining it, maybe 1/3 left at the lowest, so we could easily do about 10 days, and we aren't sparse with our water use, constantly washing dishes, drinking, cooking etc. The sure flow pump is good, maybe even more pressure and flow than I need. 5. Renogy solar system - works great, super happy to have it. The highest I've seen it on my volt meter is 8-9 amps, which is about 60% of it's theoretical efficiency but I've never really tried pointing the panels directly into the sun as they aren't adjustable. If I find a hill pointed in the right direction sometime I might give it a try. As I said above, this with the two batteries seems to work well for our loads. My recommendation is to get as many panels and batteries as you can fit/afford. I did a bunch of research on MMPT vs PWM chargers and couldn't really come to a conclusion if mmpt was worth the extra money, the PWM Renogy charger seems to work fine for vehicle use/what I'm doing. 6. Blue sea wiring gear - all great stuff, good instructions/cutout templates. No complaints, worth the price. Love the ACR, it's great to have two ways to charge the house batteries. Being able to self jump start is cool too. By the way I didn't use the start isolation feature because I didn't feel like pulling another wire from the starter solenoid(don't know if anyone does this in vans) but everything seems fine without it. 7. Lighting The 6in strip lights I installed above the bed are very bright, so I never use them. I just use the round lights. I wish I had installed a reading light, similar to this https://www.amazon.com/Dream-Lighting-Flexible-Motorhome-Spotlights/dp/B01DBT0OAM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1497837608&sr=8-1&keywords=rv+reading+light Those reading lamps were my original plan, but I was worried about them sticking down too far and hitting my head on them and got those strip lights instead. They are decent enough lights, just not right for what I wanted them for. I guess I could install a cheap remote control dimmer inline too. The 6 little round lights are great. We use these all the time, perfect light colour and brightness. The two lights I have above the awning are Alpina Hexfires. Two issues with them, for some reason my auto parts store only had one in stock when I bought it and ordered the second. They are actually slightly different as one had sat on the shelf for awhile and they changed the light a bit (you have to look pretty close but the housing and bracket are different). One of these has some condensation behind the lense but is still working, but I’d call it a quality issue. I can't tell which was the newer model, so not sure what to say. 8. Van layout, bedding etc - we love the rv queen-size bed. The layout is a bit unconventional (bed towards the front seats) but it seems to maximize storage area for the equipment we have. The bed is a bit high, but it really wasn't a bother after getting used to it and learning how to best move around inside the van after the first week or so. For two people worth of gear(biking, climbing, camping), clothing, water and food to do a long continuous trip this is working for us. It's hard to tell from the pictures but the front of the bed is a bit back from the seats. In my regular cab 1500 I really liked having that stash space behind the seats, so the panel in front of the bed is about the same distance back. We have a toolbox behind the driver's seat and an organizer behind the passenger seat we keep snacks and essentials in. I really love the 8in memory foam mattress we have. Super comfortable, honestly better than the mattress I had at home before leaving on this trip. A total win for $200 delivered. Since it's a standard size we were able to get fitted sheets, we have two sets which we rotate weekly. 9. The l-track has been nice. It was nice to allow us to figure out our storage a bit at the beginning. Mostly the hooks stay in one place now and hold our helmets and camelbacks, but we have moved them a few times to string up line to hang wet bike clothes. They were also useful after watching 50 shades of grey one night…. 10. Insulation/sound deadening/interior. The Noico liner was ok, not as nice as dynamat but much cheaper. The easy cool insulation was easy to install and I like it better than reflectix, since it's foam lined vs air I think it will hold up better. The van is whisper quiet on the road now. Much better than an empty cargo van. We have the right amount of insulation for a three season rig. There have been a few nights that got close to freezing at the beginning, so we just got out the sleeping bag and were fine. For winter camping another layer of insulation, a vent fan and a heater would be nice to add. I don't know if I'd do another interior with 5mm underlayment ply. It's not as flexible as I'd like, but then again I also hate wood work… I'm much better with metal. Maybe if I could find some reasonable priced plastic I'd do that. That said the ply is really sturdy and holding up great. The carpet we ended up using is called Trunk liner, it's half the cost of Hull liner, a bit thinner (still 1/4in or so) but more color choices. Really easy to work with, wears well, would use again. As I said before...HHR Contact cement from a spray gun is the way to go, no glue failures yet. Regrets: Not installing a roof fan. I really didnt want to cut a big hole in the van when I was building it (I fretted about even doing the cable glands for awhile) but now that the nights are getting warmer it would really be nice to have. I do have a cheap plug in fan that I use on hot nights but it hasn't been that hot very often since we're mostly traveling “north of the wall”. 2. I kind of regret not lifting the van (but much less than the fan). The transmission crossmember on these things is really really low and seems to scrape really easy (like when trying to jump a curb). I should have lifted it even though I was keeping the stock wheel and tire size.

Got to my sister's house in Wisconsin and took the opportunity to wash and wax the van. Really trying to protect the paint and get the dirt off the roof. Also took everything out and vacuumed it. If you live in an area with trees, especially pine trees, it's good to take the black plastic trim around the rear door off and de gunk it every once in awhile, otherwise the lip on the roof under it rusts away. She didn't have a ladder so washing/waxing the roof was fun... Also added in a propane detector. I carry an 11lb bottle inside the van and this was recommended to me. Apparently it's illegal to have a commercial RV with propane without one in the USA. Seemed like a good idea. It's behind my fridge and wired directly to the aux fuse panel so it's away on.

Inadvertently got a good test of my solar system. Last week at Mount Tremblant I met a guy with a Westfalia in the parking lot who killed his batteries overnight. I isolated my house batteries at the switch and jumped him. I was looking at my volt meter today when driving and noticed it wasn't charging the house batteries off the alternator (not showing 14v). I was worried I had blown my charging relay or a fuse when I jumped him but my dumb ass had just forgot to de-isolate the battery banks. Switched it back on and all good. So I've been operating the fridge and other 12v on just solar all week with no issues and didn't even notice.

Did a little mod today. The side barn door windows were clear but the rear ones that I swapped in were tinted, plus the silver insulation window shades stuck out like dogs balls. Not the stealth look I was going, for so I picked up some tint from Canadian Tire and put it on in the parking lot. Not a pro job by any means and it's a bit bluer than the rear but it looks good from 5ft.

Up in Nova Scotia now, just left cape Brenton national Park, quite an amazing drive if you get to do it. It's been a bit cold and rainy but I totally recommend the off season, apparently a zoo in the summer. All the campgrounds were "closed" but no one said anything about us parking there, so it was an affordable few days . Got some biking and hiking done. Also I totally recommend carrying tire plugs and and air on long trips, got a nail in the tire, much quicker to just fix it then swap it. I use a co2 paintball cylinder and a fixed pressure regulator but a 12v compressor would work too.

Bit of an update, we've been on the road for a bit over a week now. Slowly getting used to van life. We traveled up the coast, New York, Boston and then Acadia park in Maine. We crossed the border at the smallest crossing ever at St Stephen Canada. Just two guys and a bridge. Took us a bit because they had to process Rebecca's working holiday Visa and the guy had never done one, but they were quite nice and apologetic about it; I'd expect nothing less of the Canadians. Explored the bay of Fundy a bit and St Andrew, beautiful tides, did a bit of climbing around Fredericton. We're off to Nova Scotia today and will come back through New Brunswick again in a week... Mostly because all of the campground haven't opened for the season in NB yet so we've had to park in a few public parks, Walmart and Cabela's parking lots. Nova Scotia seems to have more camp grounds and parks open so we'll see how that goes. The van is doing well (knock on wood), very happy with the fridge and the 100l water tank.

No ladder yet, but it can't go on the back because these Chevy door hinges can't even hold up the doors when they are new. It's not bad climbing up there anyways. A company here makes heavy duty aluminum ladders that go on the side but 1. The van is already wide enough that you have trouble on narrow roads 2. They are ungodly expensive. We're on the road now anyways, so no more mods but the ones I can do with basic hand tools. Went up to New York state a few nights ago, now staying in Boston in a Walmart parking lot because none of the camp grounds around here open for the summer for another three weeks. We cooked dinner on a park bench somewhere in the city. They at least had some BBQ grills so I felt a bit less homeless about cooking there.

Few more details of stuff. Decided I needed a collapsable flagpole.... searched around on the internet a bunch for something that didn't suck, then realized I already owned the perfect thing. For those here who aren't back country skiers... it's an avalanche probe, essentially a thick tent pole with a spike on the end. I just cable tied the flag to it and it all folds up and rolls into the sleeve it comes in. Perfect. Changed out one of the grommets for a sport climbing bolt hanger so I didnt have to unthread the cam buckle strap every time. Yes... I realize it isn't a rated carabiner and the bolt hanger should pull down ... Window nets that rebecca made. There is also a big one for the side doors. The strip magnets don't hold for s#!%, glad I have the circle ones. The rear ones also are bolted through the hinge. Little ties to hold them up. Cargo net in the back. The tan bag is our sleeping bag. For anyone who wants a bada$$ two person backpacking bag I'm a huge fan of the Nemo Tango Duo, it allows the two of us to carry one less bag and weighs no more than one normal bag, 800fill down and backless. The window nets and flag pole live in the cargo net as well when not being used. The flags were brought to me last month from a friend who was in India. Some pics of the roof in use Needed a place to stand so I stole this idea from someone on Expedition Portal to use cut down ute loading ramps. Now I need to figure out what to do with the second ramp since they are only really useful in pairs... freebie if you pick it up to anyone who wants it. Had the van out for its first shakedown overnight run at Cunningham Falls State Park. We were the only people there. It of course rained, but I was very very happy with the ARB awning, we were still able to cook outside. Also took it out to a local horse race last weekend, Maryland Hunt Cup. The tailgating area was full of yuppies so I picked the coolest looking guy I could to park next to. The other guys van was more of a tail gaiting rig, he pretty much spends all weekend driving between porting events, but he did have a removable bed platform. He had only finished it a few months ago so we chatted a bunch about our builds, cool guy. Lots of TV lots of sound Lots of batteries Lots of amps and lots of air for an air horn